Chhay Ming

Good Days, Bad Days

This book is dedicated to my mother who was the decision maker that saved our lives and gave us hope for a better future…

Although she could not read or write, there wasn’t anything my mother wouldn’t do to keep her family safe. Whether is was through deep sickness, raging wars, the Khmer communist regime or leaving their home, I always knew we’d be safe when she was here. My family’s story started in Battambang ‘The Rice Bowl of Cambodia’ as modest and hard working farmers. As a boy I knew nothing but tirelessly working for endless hours under Pol Pot, not even knowing if I’d see the next sunrise. Hearing the sounds of gunshots and explosives, running through battlefields, seeing elders and even kids being taken away to be executed, that was the life I knew to be normal.